A man detonated a firebomb at the Turkish Embassy in Den Haag, causing a small fire but no injuries. The suspect fled the scene and was later arrested.
Prime Minister Balkenende came under fire for criticizing television programs that satirize the Dutch Royal Family. Balkenende is backed by the conservative Telegraaf newspaper, whose editorial declared, ”Freedom of speech isn’t a license to broadcast anything you like or ridicule everyone, not even through satire.” Allegedly, the Prime Minister’s criticism was prompted by Queen Beatrix herself, who’s annoyed at the negative publicity surrounding her family. Interior Minister Johan Remkes and his underlings are fighting. Responding to Minister Remkes’ statement that government efforts to modernize the police force were being frustrated by local forces, the head of the Amsterdam police department, Jelle Kuiper, said Minister Remkes ”doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.” Meanwhile, the government cites economic recession to justify social service budget cuts, yet the richest people in the Netherlands are getting richer. Quote magazine reports that Holland’s 500 wealthiest people have become 9% richer this year and are now worth over 90 billion euros. Meanwhile, the Egmontshof nursing home in Oud-Beijerland has introduced ‘pajama days’, days when its elderly residents must stay in their pajamas all day because there isn’t enough personnel to dress them. The Dutch government has sent a hospital ship instead of troops to war-torn Liberia. The ship, anchored off the coast, will care for UN peace-keepers. One Liberian businessman quoted in Trouw said, ”A hospital ship only for UN personnel? You must be joking! What are they going to do here, hand out aspirins?” Lawyers acting for a group called the Mothers of Srebrenica want 1 billion dollars in compensation from the Dutch government and United Nations, who they hold responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslim men at the hands of Bosnian Serbs when Srebrenica, designated a ‘safe haven’ and protected by Dutch soldiers operating under the UN flag, was surrendered to the Serbs in June 1995. The ‘Eurobarometer’, a European Commission opinion poll, found that 70% of Dutch people believe Israel is a major threat to world peace. The Australian government issued a travel warning to its citizens traveling to the Netherlands, citing rampant street crime. Dutch custom agents at Schipol airport arrested two Malaysian women who were trying to smuggle 107,500 xtc pills out of the country in suitcases. The pills have a Malaysian street-value of 3 million euros. Elsewhere, 34-year-old Dutchman Machiel Kuijt was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for drug trafficking, prompting Dutch newspapers to lament the horrific prison conditions in Thailand, where, in addition to violence and Aids, prisoners must eat ”green fish-head soup”. Dutch authorities compiled an official list of the animals that may be kept as household pets in the Netherlands. Monkeys, bats, ermines, owls, vultures, koala bears and hyenas are forbidden; llamas, camels and pelicans are allowed. Trouw reports that 40,000 women in the Netherlands have silicon breasts. Two Dutch art collectors have written a book about fraud and corruption in the art trade, claiming one-fifth of all art works sold in Holland are fakes. The authors describe the world of art trading as ”a jungle full of trickery and deceit”, in which dealers have faked artists’ signatures with felt-tip pens and even removed an unattractive face from a group portrait by the 18th-century English artist Joshua Reynolds, in order to make it more marketable. However, at least in future it’ll be harder to lie on job applications. Software company Alphium will become the first Dutch company to use an Israeli secret service lie detector machine called ‘Savvy Recruiter’ for interviewing prospective employees. Apparently, Savvy Recruiter reduced theft among Israel’s McDonald’s employees from 20% to 2%. And finally, this week’s Vrij Nederland magazine asks: what is ‘typically Dutch’? Among the findings were ”state-grown marijuana in pharmacies, endless bargain hunting, giving birth in your own bed, Islamic broadcasting, Turkish supermarkets, and an Italian design kitchen.”
A man detonated a firebomb at the Turkish Embassy in Den Haag, causing a small fire but no injuries. The suspect fled the scene and was later arrested. Prime Minister Balkenende came under fire for criticizing television programs that satirize the Dutch Royal Family. Balkenende is backed by the conservative Telegraaf newspaper, whose editorial declared, ”Freedom of speech isn’t a license to broadcast anything you like or ridicule everyone, not even through satire.” Allegedly, the Prime Minister’s criticism was prompted by Queen Beatrix herself, who’s annoyed at the negative publicity surrounding her family. Interior Minister Johan Remkes and his underlings are fighting. Responding to Minister Remkes’ statement that government efforts to modernize the police force were being frustrated by local forces, the head of the Amsterdam police department, Jelle Kuiper, said Minister Remkes ”doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.” Meanwhile, the government cites economic recession to justify social service budget cuts, yet the richest people in the Netherlands are getting richer. Quote magazine reports that Holland’s 500 wealthiest people have become 9% richer this year and are now worth over 90 billion euros. Meanwhile, the Egmontshof nursing home in Oud-Beijerland has introduced ‘pajama days’, days when its elderly residents must stay in their pajamas all day because there isn’t enough personnel to dress them. The Dutch government has sent a hospital ship instead of troops to war-torn Liberia. The ship, anchored off the coast, will care for UN peace-keepers. One Liberian businessman quoted in Trouw said, ”A hospital ship only for UN personnel? You must be joking! What are they going to do here, hand out aspirins?” Lawyers acting for a group called the Mothers of Srebrenica want 1 billion dollars in compensation from the Dutch government and United Nations, who they hold responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslim men at the hands of Bosnian Serbs when Srebrenica, designated a ‘safe haven’ and protected by Dutch soldiers operating under the UN flag, was surrendered to the Serbs in June 1995. The ‘Eurobarometer’, a European Commission opinion poll, found that 70% of Dutch people believe Israel is a major threat to world peace. The Australian government issued a travel warning to its citizens traveling to the Netherlands, citing rampant street crime. Dutch custom agents at Schipol airport arrested two Malaysian women who were trying to smuggle 107,500 xtc pills out of the country in suitcases. The pills have a Malaysian street-value of 3 million euros. Elsewhere, 34-year-old Dutchman Machiel Kuijt was sentenced to life imprisonment in Thailand for drug trafficking, prompting Dutch newspapers to lament the horrific prison conditions in Thailand, where, in addition to violence and Aids, prisoners must eat ”green fish-head soup”. Dutch authorities compiled an official list of the animals that may be kept as household pets in the Netherlands. Monkeys, bats, ermines, owls, vultures, koala bears and hyenas are forbidden; llamas, camels and pelicans are allowed. Trouw reports that 40,000 women in the Netherlands have silicon breasts. Two Dutch art collectors have written a book about fraud and corruption in the art trade, claiming one-fifth of all art works sold in Holland are fakes. The authors describe the world of art trading as ”a jungle full of trickery and deceit”, in which dealers have faked artists’ signatures with felt-tip pens and even removed an unattractive face from a group portrait by the 18th-century English artist Joshua Reynolds, in order to make it more marketable. However, at least in future it’ll be harder to lie on job applications. Software company Alphium will become the first Dutch company to use an Israeli secret service lie detector machine called ‘Savvy Recruiter’ for interviewing prospective employees. Apparently, Savvy Recruiter reduced theft among Israel’s McDonald’s employees from 20% to 2%. And finally, this week’s Vrij Nederland magazine asks: what is ‘typically Dutch’? Among the findings were ”state-grown marijuana in pharmacies, endless bargain hunting, giving birth in your own bed, Islamic broadcasting, Turkish supermarkets, and an Italian design kitchen.”
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